Aging Together’s 5 Over 50 Celebration is May 1!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
Contact: Ellen Phipps, Executive Director                                         
ephipps@agingtogether.org
540-829-6405
PO Box 367
Culpeper, VA  22701
 
Aging Together’s 5 Over 50 Celebration is May 1!

Aging Together is hosting four free receptions around the region honoring this year’s 5 Over 50 honorees. As tradition for Aging Together, every year one person from each of the region’s five counties is chosen and celebrated in May, aligning with Older Americans month (and we are gratified that all 5 counties in our region have proclaimed May 2024 as Older Americans Month). Selected from dozens of nominations submitted by the public, this year’s honorees are no exception to the group of amazing older adults that have been highlighted over the past 11 years. A signature event for Aging Together, the 5 Over 50 Celebration underscores the invaluable positive impact those over age 50 have on our communities.

Event Specifics

Date: May 1, 2024
Time: 4:00-6:00pm (The program begins at 4:30.)
Registration Required: www.agingtogether.org / 540-829-6405
Venues:
Peppers Grill (Honoring Butch Davies and Troy & Karen Coppage) 
The PATH Foundation Resource Center (Honoring Carolyn Kirkland)
Town of Orange Community Center (Honoring Donna Waugh-Robinson)
Washington Fire House (Honoring Steph Ridder)
 
For more details and to register: www.agingtogether.org
                                                                                                                          
5 over 50 Honorees for 2024
 
Karen & Troy Coppage
Karen and Troy operate Clore Furniture in Madison which has been in the family on Troy’s side since 1830. Troy is a 6th generation owner. He has been involved with the fire department most of his life, for 43 years, and served as chief for 16 of those. Troy also serves on the Rapidan Service Authority.  Both he and Karen are very involved in Madison Day which Karen started and which is on its 5th year this May. Madison Day is no small feat - it’s grown from approximately 200 volunteers and 18 projects the first year to 25 projects and 625 volunteers in 2023. Madison Day, with its theme of “warmer, dryer, safer” is a one-day event geared to helping those in need get help with home improvement projects such as leaky roofs, ramps, handrails, replacement of rotten porch boards and more. At the end of that day, dozens of Madison residents have better homes. Karen also serves on the board of the Madison Department of Social Services. Both attend Beth Car Baptist Church and participate in mission trips that also incorporate construction projects to improve lives.
There’s not a lot of free time in this couple’s life together, but they do enjoy camping, and staying fit through exercise.
 
Donna Waugh-Robinson
One of Donna’s biggest gifts to the community is her founding of the Orange County Children’s Toy Box in 1991 right after her college graduation.  Donna is part of the P.D. Waugh family that established its business in Orange in 1939 and later changed the business name to Waugh Enterprises Harley Davidson in 1976, under her parents Don and Marcelline Waugh. It remained as such until it was sold in 2016. Donna has been a motivated community supporter since her younger days in the Key Club, a youth subsidiary of the Kiwanis Club, and helping with the Jaycees, the Junior Chamber of Commerce in Orange.  Her involvement with both organizations gave her the foundation for her love and commitment to serving the children in the Orange community.
 
Back then the Kiwanis Club provided the funds to take underprivileged Orange Elementary School children Christmas shopping every year, they had their Key Club Members, chaperone the children like a big brother or sister on the field trip. At the same time, the Jaycees were operating a small toy collection and distribution for Orange residents who needed Christmas presents for their children. Donna volunteered every Christmas throughout her college years for the Jaycees As with many clubs, membership was waning and the Jaycees decided to fold. They asked Donna if she would take over the Toy Drive for Orange and the rest is history. Donna and all her volunteers have grown the charity from helping 30 children to over 800. They collect toys, books, bikes, and much more that they sort and pack for the children, and with the money they raise they shop for each child providing coats, shoes, and special items the parents have requested for their child. When it is packed up they deliver it to each family in time for Christmas. 
 
Donna has remained an engaged and supportive citizen of Orange, participating in many organizations that include the Chamber of Commerce (past president), Orange Downtown Alliance, Orange County School Board, the Rotary Club of Orange, St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Business and Professional Women’s Club, and is an active member of the Town Council.
 
Steph Ridder
Steph has resided in Rappahannock County since 1980 and retired here with her husband on a beautiful country farm. Earlier in her professional career as a lawyer she worked with Rappahannock Legal Services providing help to low-income people in civil matters including civil rights, landlord tenant, domestic violence, child custody, social security disability and welfare as well as other civil matters. After ten years she went to teach at Geroge Washington University in the Women’s studies department in the Law School. During this time, she consulted with the Women’s Legal Defense on reproductive rights cases as well as child support guidelines. She served on the board of the Childcare and Learning Center, some of that time serving as Chair.
Retirement hasn’t slowed Steph down. She’s taken her tour of various boards and community committees including Chair of the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, the Krebser Fund Board and the Steering Committee for Virginia Working Landscapes. She is also serving on the Rappahannock Planning Commission and the Rappahannock Board of Zoning and is a member of the Flint Hill Fire & Rescue.  She is currently the Chair of the board of the Headwaters Public School Foundation, an organization driven to support and build supplemental learning opportunities for school kids. Steph considers it a “privilege to be around young people” and finds volunteering here to be a good opportunity for connecting with them.
 
Steph has a passion for the environment, nature and the outdoors, and in greening up of spaces including her work with the Evergreen Cemetery in Richmond where gravestones of many African Americans were cleaned up, and consequently revealed former lives of ancestors important to current generations.
 
 
Butch Davies
Butch (who was named Butch by his grandmother 2 years before he was born!) was born in Charlottesville at UVA, came to Culpeper 5 days later, and grew up there. One can sit with
Butch and hear the recent history of Culpeper including how the town was segregated and
the many changes he’s seen as it grew from a population of 2500 to today’s 20,000+. Butch
has been very involved with this progress both in the Town and Culpeper County.
 
Butch started law school, left to serve in the Army (where he received the Army Commendation medal), and then returned to law school where he graduated in 1973. Right away he returned to Culpeper and opened his law firm. In the next couple years, he added partners, and Butch has just retired after more than 50 years practicing law.
 
One of Butch’s fondest achievements was his elected role as a Delegate in Virginia’s General
Assembly from 1992-99. But Butch underscores that he represented all the people, not just a party, something that remains steadfastly important to him.
 
Butch began his volunteer impact early in his career while chairing the United Way Campaign in the 70’s, and he also served on the Mental Health Association board. Moving forward he was highly instrumental in helping to garner land for the development of Germanna Community College, on whose Educational Foundation board he sat for over twenty-five years. He was the first Board Chair of Culpeper Renaissance and served for 5 years. He served on the Commonwealth Transportation Board for 8 years. And he’s served on the boards and as chair of the Culpeper Chamber of Commerce and of the Bluemont Concert Series. He’s been involved with multiple bar associations and is a member of the Virginia Law Foundation. He also served on the Board of Aging Together and Randolph-Macon College Alumni Board.
 
 
Carolyn Kirkland
Carolyn was influenced to become a nurse through scholarships offered by the orphanage she and her 4 siblings grew up in. This training led to a career starting as a hotel nurse and then, when she became a navy nurse, took her to various posts including the amputee ward of a duty station in California, a tour in Naples, Italy, and Quantico. It was at the latter where she met her husband in 1971 after he returned from Vietnam where he served in the marines. Carolyn teases that for 8 months she outranked him.
 
The couple both left the military in 1977 and chose Virginia as their home. Carolyn’s nursing background came in handy while helping her husband deal with the effects of Agent Orange. Together they became very involved in Boulder Crest Foundation, helping those who have PTSD.
 
After her husband’s death Carolyn’s passion remains helping other Veterans through volunteering with both Boulder Crest and Hero’s Bridge, two organizations to whom she feels very connected. Having lived and worked through the era of World War II, Vietnam and the Korean War she has seen firsthand the effects of physical and mental trauma brought on by warfare. As a volunteer and ambassador for these organizations, Carolyn feels proud of the success rate in dissolving this trauma, bringing peace and resolving some of the isolation that impacts Veterans.